Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Movie Review: Amusing Bombast

Pirates of the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl Johnny Depp — *Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl* (2003) with Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, and Geoffrey Rush.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) movie review summary: Johnny Depp puts his penchant for offbeat characters to good use in Gore Verbinski’s mostly entertaining mix of old-fashioned Hollywood swashbuckling and early 21st-century Hollywood bombast.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) movie review: Bombastic, overlong yet amusing Johnny Depp showcase

Starring Johnny Depp, Gore Verbinski’s generally well-received 2003 period adventure blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a cinematic anomaly – at least when it comes to big-budget American productions, especially those produced by someone like Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, The Rock, Pearl Harbor).

After all, pirate movies – a Hollywood staple from the 1920s (Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, The Black Pirate) to the 1950s (The Crimson Pirate, The Golden Hawk, The Buccaneer) – had become a thing of the distant past. In fact, by the early 1960s the genre for the most part had been relegated to Italian-made B flicks (The Son of Captain Blood, Hercules and the Black Pirates, Pirates of Malaysia).

With one single exception – Steven Spielberg’s 1991 box office hit Hook – sporadic resurrections in the last three decades have turned out to be critical and/or commercial bombs (Swashbuckler, The Pirates of Penzance, Cutthroat Island), something that didn’t bode at all well for the Walt Disney Studios’ $140 million big-screen “adaptation” of one of their theme-park rides.

But Neptune’s mood has apparently improved with the arrival of the new century. He has smiled – or rather, grinned – on The Curse of the Black Pearl, a largely enjoyable romp that not only became one of the biggest international box office hits of the year but also earned Johnny Depp his first Academy Award nomination, in addition to four other nods.

Run-of-the-mill goings-on

The flimsy The Curse of the Black Pearl storyline – Jerry Bruckheimer productions don’t allow character and/or plot complexities to get in their way – traces the fate of the ladylike yet spirited Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), daughter of Governor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce) of Port Royal, Jamaica, after she is kidnapped by a band of pirates led by the fearsome Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush).

Although Elizabeth has been promised to navy officer James Norrington (Jack Davenport), amorous blacksmith apprentice/swordsman Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) is the one who sets out to rescue her from the bowels of Captain Barbossa’s ship, the Black Pearl.

Enter an eccentrically fey ship captain, Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), whose vessel had just sunk without a trace. We then learn that Capt. Barbossa and Capt. Sparrow are old enemies – and that the evil Barbossa and his crew are suffering the effects of a horrific curse that has turned them into the undead.

Inevitably, Will and Sparrow join forces to fight the eerie pirates and save their lady-in-distress from a fate much, but much worse than plain, old-fashioned death.

Almost ‘movie magic’

Fresh off the commercially successful horror flick The Ring, Gore Verbinski demonstrates that he has the right touch for this sort of mindless entertainment – to the point that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, cliched boy-rescues-girl narrative and all, nearly reaches that rarefied cinematic realm known as “movie magic.”

True, the enchantment felt while watching Michael Curtiz and William Keighley’s The Adventures of Robin Hood or Rouben Mamoulian’s The Mark of Zorro (two “land pirate” movies) is missing here; excessive length is an issue, while the sense of fun feels a tad laborious at times. Yet The Curse of the Black Pearl undeniably offers multifarious pleasures.

In addition to Verbinski’s overall handling of the proceedings, these include lively sword fights (even if nothing quite as thrilling as the Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power vs. Basil Rathbone duels in Robin Hood and Zorro), bits of witty dialogue (Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio received final screenplay credit), state-of-the-art special effects, hammy-yet-humorous acting, and even a girl-rescues-boy episode that should charm the most jaded of filmgoers.

The Curse of the Black Pearl Orlando Bloom — *Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl* with Orlando Bloom.

‘Made to order’ Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush

In regard to the hammy acting, Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush – two performers ever ready to devour the scenery around them – are let loose in this one.

Recommended for You

Surprisingly, they succeed in walking on their respective histrionic tightropes, mugging and gesticulating all the way through, without ever falling off. Since Depp and Rush are impersonating borderline cartoonish characters, their grandiose acting styles – this time without any hint of self-importance – are made to order.

Depp’s amusingly amoral Jack Sparrow, the long-lost offspring of the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards and limp-wristed Old Hollywood comedienne ZaSu Pitts, is particularly effective. (According to reports, Depp’s inspirations were Richards and Pepe LePew.)

Not even as the idiosyncratic title character in Tim Burton’s 1994 “biopic” Ed Wood has the actor created such a cleverly delineated specimen of homo bizarrus, flawless low-class British accent and all.

To boot, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl presents the would-be Tyrone Power of the early 21st century: A new and more vital Orlando Bloom, who cuts as dashing a figure as the star of The Black Swan. Gone are the fake blond hair and the vapid stare that had marred Bloom’s work in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Sword & simian epic

Now, films featuring in-depth character observations and intricate plots just might get away with a running time longer than two hours. Empty-headed adventure movies, however, should be considerably shorter.

With a running time of almost two and a half hours, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl does overstay its welcome. Editors Stephen E. Rivkin, Arthur Schmidt, and Craig Wood could easily have excised a good 20 minutes from the film without any significant loss to the narrative or characters.

That said, whenever Johnny Depp lisps a bon mot, Geoffrey Rush spits venom, Orlando Bloom grabs his sword, and Klaus Badelt’s rousing music plays at full throttle, all is forgiven.

Besides, how many movies, whether on land or on water, boasts in its cast a sprightly zombie monkey?

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) cast & crew
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenplay: Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
Screen Story: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie & Jay Wolpert
Source: Walt Disney’s theme park ride “Pirates of the Caribbean”
Cast:
Johnny Depp … Jack Sparrow
Geoffrey Rush … Barbossa
Orlando Bloom … Will Turner
Keira Knightley … Elizabeth Swann
Jack Davenport … Norrington
Jonathan Pryce … Governor Weatherby Swann
Lee Arenberg … Pintel
Mackenzie Crook … Ragetti
Damian O’Hare … Lt. Gillette
Giles New … Murtogg
Kevin McNally … Joshamee Gibbs
Zoe Saldana … Anamaria
Cinematography: Dariusz A. Wolski
Film Editing: Craig Wood, Stephen E. Rivkin & Arthur Schmidt
Music: Klaus Badelt
Production Design: Brian Morris
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Running Time: 143m
Country: United States

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Academy Awards

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) received five Academy Award nominations:

Best Actor (Johnny Depp)
Best Visual Effects (John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charles Gibson & Terry D. Frazee)
Best Sound Mixing (Christopher Boyes, David Parker, David E. Campbell & Lee Orloff)
Best Sound Editing (Christopher Boyes & George Watters II)
Best Makeup (Ve Neill & Martin Samuel)

More awards

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl won several other awards, including:

Irish Film Awards (2004) – 2 People’s Choice Awards:
Best International Actress (Keira Knightley; also for King Arthur), Best International Actor (Johnny Depp)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl box office

The second biggest commercial success of 2003 – both domestically and worldwide – Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl grossed $305.4 million in the U.S. and Canada, in addition to $348.9 million internationally.

Worldwide total: $654.3 million, making it a hugely profitable endeavor – which explains the sequels that followed.

Recommended for You

The top blockbuster of 2003 was another Disney release, the Pixar-produced animated underwater adventure Finding Nemo: $339.7 million domestically; (an estimated) $531.3 million internationally. Worldwide: $871 million. Andrew Stanton directed.